Hospital Palliative Care Teams and Post-Acute Care in Nursing Facilities: An Integrative Review.

Only 12 articles were included, and most were pilot or descriptive studies, so the review cannot show which palliative care transition model works. Many studies did not clearly describe how palliative care was delivered after hospital discharge, how goals were documented, or which patients received services. The Gerrard quality improvement project reported a match between preferred place of care and death increasing from 53% to 100%, but it did not report how goals were documented or achieved, limiting usefulness. The Catic pilot was not adequately powered to generalize its readmission finding. Included studies came from five countries with different health systems, reimbursement structures, and definitions of palliative care, so findings may not transfer directly to U.S. nursing facilities. The review included only English-language articles and searches as of February 2016.

The supplied metadata lists non-U.S. government and NIH extramural research support. The text does not include an author conflict-of-interest or funding declaration.

Do not read the reported readmission rates, survival rates, or the 53% to 100% match in the Gerrard project as proof that a palliative care transition model works. These findings came from descriptive, pilot, and quality-improvement studies, and the review found no tested model for posthospital palliative care in nursing facilities.